Too true Ripster. The north's industrial output is virtually unstoppable by late 1863. Grey Fox said it best in the past that the CSA can try to win early, or just hope to commit to a "hold-em" type defense. I have won quite a few games as the CSA so it is doable, but extremely difficult. You must be willing to sacrifice in certain areas to protect others. The one good thing the CSA has in this game is that towards the end of the war as the CSA retract inward it doesn't see the same erosion of its manpower in terms of its armies in the field as it did in real life. You can still field massive forces as the CSA and when they are entrenched heavily its tough to crack.

After all that planning last turn, there were absolutely no battles at all.

[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]

In Virginia Longstreet remained in Manassas but Forney withdrew from the battle before it even began. I didn't want this because I think we could have won the battle handily and still took the region. Oh well. We now have a toe hold over the Rappahannock and will look to protect our line of retreat and supply back to Alexandria from Longsreet this turn.

As you can see he has 6 divisions and over 4k power, so a very strong force. I do wonder why he is in charge instead of Jackson. Speaking of Jackson...I haven't seen him at all lately. He could have some massive force under Jackson hidden away somewhere ready to strike. Makes me somewhat nervous. Regardless, we are going to hold in VA this turn to consolidate our gain in Fredericksburg and protect Alexandria should Longstreet move against it.

Rosecran's appeared this turn, so he will rail east and take command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia from McDowell. I have to get these army names arranged, it must be the army of the Potomac or I will go insane looking at it. I will send little Mac there as well just to fix it

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

Grant is now the commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Fitting. I do wish it was Army of the West, since this is the only army commander I will have out here. Oh well. Look at the range of Grant's command radius!

Whoa.

He will go to Pope now and link up just west of Nashville, while Sherman will rail there on attack to try and clear out any pesky militia still in the surrounding regions. Our militia will go to the regions with blown rail lines to try and repair them. We didn't take the town of Bowling Green last turn, I suppose we weren't activated, so we will try again this turn. I also have two more divisions coming down to attack Forrest north of BG and probably fix the rail line next turn. I also have a cavalry division that was recruited on its way to Louisville to form under a General and create some havoc in his rear as well. I intend to push this division on Knoxville quickly if I can. If I am able to take it, I will also rush an infantry division there that are being recruited in KY and Ohio.

In New Orleans we still haven't taken Fort Jackson. These undependable generals grrr. Well, we will of course try again. Our reinforcements under Buell should also arrive this turn. We will be able to form a couple corps finally and see if we can push north toward Baton Rouge.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

Well we arrived in El Paso and there wasn't a force, but we also didn't assault the town. Now Baylor is North of us with 800 pwr! That is a lot out here for the CSA. But we are trapped here as you can see so we will remain on the defensive and see if Baylor wants to attack us.

Things are beginning to heat up folks. I still only see around 3k power total in the west under Johnston, so I know he has more forces hidden somewhere. Question is where, and what are they waiting for?

The CSA strikes back! Lee attacked our force in Fredericksburg and after a slug fest managed to push us out.

Unfortunately our corps under Franklin was in attack mode while moving on Culpepper so it seems it put our whole force in attack stance. I think had that not happened we would have won a tremendous victory here. I did not expect him to counterattack so props to Exlaime for showing that initiative. However we do have some tricks up our sleeve. Kearny's I corps was basically unscathed through that whole ordeal so what we are going to do is this.
Our II corps under Berry will remain on the other side of the river from Fredericksburg, while the I, III, and IV corps will converge in Culpepper and the I corps under Kearny will cross to attack Johnson.

Johnsons corps took a pounding during that fight and we should fall upon him with 80k men while Longstreet is not within MTSG, only Lee. This should let us catch him only in level 1-2 trenches and should the fight last a few rounds, we could ruin is corps. Remember, I look to attack Exlaime vigorously throughout this campaign season to keep him pumping those resources into replacements.

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

Well we found Jackson! Here he is with command of the Army of Mississippi. I knew he was lurking around somewhere with a force. So since we know where he is we are going on the attack here as well. Popes corps and Whipple's Corps will engage Polk's corps one region south of Nashville so that Johnston's larger force won't have the entrenchment bonus.

Should we win here our other corps will arrive in Clarksville across the river and if they both retreat to Nashville we will surround them on three sides. This might leave us open to counter attack to Jackson, but I don't believe Johnston or Polk can MTSG if he does and i think we can defend against him. He might move on Donaldson which could take our closest depot, but we are forming one in Bowling Green this turn.

In New Orleans we are also going to attack AS Johnston just east of Baton Rouge. He is well dug in, but he has two weak divisions (about 700pwr total) vs our 2k pwr stack with three strong divisions. I thought about moving straight to Baton Rouge, but if he moves his force there we would be crossing a river and fighting on terrible ground. Hopefully this will isolate Baton Rouge next turn should we prevail.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

We are in a pickle here. It seems neither side will attack now and we have no retreat path. We are going to have to attack one way or the other. Should we lose I just hope it boots us out of the region. We could lose this entire stack if things go poorly. Not good at all.

Big turn on the way. I don't think we will win every fight, but again we hope to deal some blows to exlaime and hopefully get some retreat hits put on him as well by taking regions in these attacks. The more he spends on those replacements the better for us! The north can handle replacements and new recruits, the south, not so much.

Orphan_kentuckian wrote:Unfortunately our corps under Franklin was in attack mode while moving on Culpepper so it seems it put our whole force in attack stance. I think had that not happened we would have won a tremendous victory here.

I didn't learn this until recently, but each corps that MTSG's into a battle will use the posture they are currently in, they will not inherit the posture of the stacks in the contested region. So, it is possible for different corps to use different postures in the same battle.

Using Pope as a corps commander, aye? I really don't like him, and I'm not alone, he is so unpopular that he gives all forces under his command -10 cohesion. With his low seniority if he manages to claim credit for any victories it goes straight to his head, he thinks he is a god or something. The last thing I want to do is pay NM to not promote him.

Speaking of promoting - Did PGTB die? Is that why Jackson is a 3 star general? Not his best role...

Cardinal Ape wrote:Using Pope as a corps commander, aye? I really don't like him, and I'm not alone, he is so unpopular that he gives all forces under his command -10 cohesion. With his low seniority if he manages to claim credit for any victories it goes straight to his head, he thinks he is a god or something. The last thing I want to do is pay NM to not promote him.

Speaking of promoting - Did PGTB die? Is that why Jackson is a 3 star general? Not his best role...

Yes for now I kind of have to. I am strapped for 2 stars until I get some promotions, which I hope are soon.

Well we did have some battles this turn. We got the worst of it in both, but the hits the CSA took in the retreats made it even. I'll go even in casualties as the north any day of the week. Here is the first battle in Tenn.

And the hits taken by the CSA in the retreat.

All in all it accomplished what I had hoped for. Now Johnston and Pope are both in Nashville and surrounded on three sides with only one railway out. He could choose to hunker down and try and hold, but we will talk about that soon.

IN Virginia we found Johnson's Corps and it looks like Longstreet railed over but Lee left. Thank goodness.

Still taking more casualties in the battle, but here are the hits taken in the retreat.

So all in all we went about even with the CSA.

[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]

As you can see, our troops are a bit spent. I think we are going to hunker down this turn and see if Lee wants to come at us again. I doubt he will since two of his corps are pretty torn up. We also have a fresh division done with training on the way from New York. This division is all infantry with one sharpshooter unit, almost 10k men.

Our small cavalry division will move on the Shenendoah Valley and meet its reinforcements there to fill out the division to a full 18 units. It will then take all of the Valley while the CSA is hunkered down near Richmond.

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

As you saw we won the battle in Tenn. This does present us with a problem though. Jackson is fresh and has moved one region away from Donaldson. We are going to send our fleet out and block the river and hope we beat him there. Jackson does have the fast mover trait but I doubt he can get across in 4 days, which is when our fleet should arrive. This will let our boys rest one turn without having to worry about him.

My plan to force exlaime back into Nashville worked, but we took few more casualties than I thought we would. I will stay put this turn and see if he abandons Nashville to me, or decides to stay put. If he stays, I will then try to swing around and cut off the only rail line he has leading into the region. We have another division on the way to reinforce and some more arty. Our cavalry division in KY is busy chasing his cavalry detachment around middle KY so it looks like we aren't moving on Nashville right away. I have a militia division forming to be my supply line defense.

In New Orleans it seems AS Johnston retreated without a fight. He also went north which leaves Baton Rouge open, so we will move on it this turn. Our other division finally took Ft. Jackson(YAY!) so he will head back to reinforce New Orleans for now.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

Well there was a battle here, but nothing to write home about. We are still trapped in the region so I am pulling out Carson's division and heading west to get some MC over the region so hopefully we can retreat next turn.

So we will wait and see if Exlaime strikes back this turn, but we are going on the defensive to regroup. I look to move on Nashville fairly soon or at least block Jackson from reinforcing.

Quiet turn. No battles to speak of. In Virginia we are going to rest one more turn and see if exlaime keeps his current defensive positions. If he does, I think we will strike again next turn. For now we will move on Charlottesville.

From the look of it he has 4? corps maybe, with one in Richmond as well. This one however cannot MTSG in Fredericksburg, so I believe striking here would be our best bet. Again, I am in no rush to push on Richmond quickly, I want to engage his forces and look for some decisive results. We have some more forces on their way from Halleck and Little Mac, so I think our Army here is around 150k men with over 600 cannon. An impressive forces, but you know the saying, "An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep." We are the last part of that saying just now.

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

Exlaime gave up Nashville, or so it seems. He also pulled back Jackson as well. I think he is going to be blowing rails to slow us up along the way until he gets to his fall back position. Where that will be I don't know. I am sending my cavalry division deep into Tenn to blow some of his rails for a change. Probably won't do much, but if he is planning on falling all the way back to Chatt this might slow him down a bit. We will move on Nashville this turn then I believe our goal will be to cut off Memphis.

We also have a couple more 2 stars available so we will be replacing Pope this turn, and sending him...somewhere else. lol

In New Orleans I think we will besiege Baton Rouge while our other corps moves north along the rail lines. I know he will probably be sitting around Vicksburg/Jackson area with something. I would.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

Carson escaped and took some MC so now our whole force will try to fall back.

Quiet few turns so we are going to discuss our plans for the remainder of the 62' campaign season. Should be an eventful couple of months, if the weather holds out.

[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]

We are taking the Shenandoah with our cavalry division and aren't seeing any opposition. I do however see JEB Stuart heading that way, he could have a division under his command. He will give us fits here as our general is nowhere near his abilities.

The NVA (Army of Northeastern Virginia), Will attack Longstreet at Fredericksburg. He is well dug in with 4 divisions and Lee can MTSG as well as Johnson. However, we should be bringing in around 12k power vs around 6.5k which means about 140k men vs. I should say around 60. Its not 3-1 odds, but I think our force is stronger at the moment and his Corps in Richmond won't be able to join the fight. Lee's 4 divisions and Johnsons 1 division won't have the entrenchment bonus, so hopefully we will be able to tear them up. We will each be able to bring in tons of cash this round so I want him
spending the majority of his on replacements and not new divisions. I am hoping since the ground is open and we aren't crossing a river, that our 600+ artillary divisions will be the difference here. Should be a big battle. Can't wait!

Also look at our NM. This is what I'm talking about with the North. We are now at 111 NM from events...just ridiculous.

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

We consolidated our force in Nashville to leave a small corps there to defend while we drive south with Grant and Crittenden. Lew Wallace's corps will also arrive in 10 days. Our goal here is to drive at Lawrence Alabama, effectively cutting the east/west rail from Chatt/Atlanta to Memphis. Once this is done, I hope there is enough good weather left to then move on Corinth and perhaps even Memphis. We have two very good divisions forming in Louisville to reinforce Nashville in about 2 turns because once we move west toward Corinth, Nashville will be on its own. However the force here should be well dug in by that time, have 4 divisions and bad weather will be creeping in. Hopefully enough to hold if he goes for it when he see us driving west.

In Louisiana we managed to get Baton Rouge to surrender and we see AS Johnston has moved south. We will now move our corps over and protect the rail lines toward New Orleans. If he remains in the area we will attack him next turn. If not, we will continue to drive north toward Jackson and Vicksburg.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

Our force managed to survive here and also even take East Dona. We have built a depot and hope that the depot in Tucson will send enough supply here to keep our boys fed. Ammo on the other hand will be hard to come by I'm sure. This will more than likely just become a standoff because I don't think we can move an 800 pwr stack out of El Paso. However we are going to send out our rangers and Carson's cavalry divison to get some MC around El Paso and see if we can create some supply problems for him.

Next turn we will have raised taxes and bonds, so should have plenty of money to play with. We already have 1000 in reserve just to see how we land on the battle in VA. This should let us have enough to replace our losses quickly as well as build new forces!

Well there was definitely one heck of a battle in VA, actually two battles. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before in terms of casualties. At the end of the day both battles involved well over 100k casualties. Personally I told exlaime that I would rerun the turn because that was so unrealistic to me I can barely stand it. The actual battle of Fredericksburg was massive frontal assaults and the union sustained only 14k casualties and people thought it was a massacre. These battles had over 100k!

The first battle we were absolutely butchered. I think we lost 2 divisions and most of the elements from the other 2 from our III corps. But our other 3 corps are still intact but just tore up. Over 80k casualties! Ridiculous.

The next battle saw the destruction of Longstreet and Johnson's corps. Why they didn't retreat out of the region I don't know. So with these two battles over 100k young men were either killed or wounded. What is this WW1?

At the end of the day we lost like 11 NM total from these battles, but we wiped out two of Exlaime's corps and heavily damaged Lee's stack. It looks like he still has a corps in Richmond, but i'm unable to see what he has there. We will need a few turns to recover from this bloodbath, so I don't think we will see anymore action on this front for a while. By the time we recover I guess that winter will be here.

*Has anyone seen anything like this in any of their games? I have played quite a few PBEM's and have never seen a bloodbath like this. One side usually gives up after a while even if on hold-at-all-costs.*

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

Jackson railed south and attacked our force in LA. We didn't have the other corps in position to MTSG yet, so now we will be falling back toward New Orleans. Its a good move by him because Grant is not within striking distance of Memphis and Jackson could perhaps push on New Orleans.

I will have to get these boys set up in defensive positions in the swamps near NO as quickly as possible. I don't want to fall all the way back to New Orleans and risked being defeated there just yet.

As far as Grant goes we have found exlaime's new defensive positions in Tenn. We however will be continuing to strike south-west toward the rail lines and Corinth. We will leave one corps on our captured depot and send Grant and Crittenden southward. Our corps at the Depot will have about 30k men so I hope he can hold that position in case of a counter-attack. If we don't then Grant will risk being cut off from any supplies for a bit.

We are building quite a bit this turn, and throwing in some replacements. Now that I wiped out exlaime's 2 corps in VA we should have a massive advantage there if we can recover quickly enough.

It was not a good turn as the Union overall, make no mistake. We are being pushed back in LA and lost 2 full divisions in VA and a ton of casualties. However I think we come out ahead in the long run as we can afford these kinds of battles far more the CSA can.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

We are going to try and cut off his force in El Paso and see if he has supply problems here with 2 large divisions surely El Paso can't create enough to keep them going without any forts nearby.

*Edit: I have changed my orders in Tenn. Grant and Crittenden will not keep going south. They are heading to Ft. Henry to meet some reinforcements and will push straight for Memphis from there. We will have our other two corps form a line against Johnston across the river, with about 50k men total. The reason is that i've seen that Exlaime has actually blown his rail lines in Corinth anyway so no quick redeployment can happen. By moving from Ft. Henry we will be able to shore up our supply lines and retreat routes if need be.

Only in TEAW have I seen that level of casualties. Like you said, it seems very historically unrealistic. Lee lost over 60% of his entire army in two days, 50,000 men slaughtered! The Army of Northern Virginia had excellent morale but I believe that even they would have broken and routed away long before 60% of them were dead. It would have been perhaps more palatable if they had lost 10-15% in battle and then lost another 10-15% in the pusuit after the battle but the 60% level of casualties puts the Battle of the Somme to shame!

"The Hanged Man is a representative of humanity who is found between two kingdoms - that of this world and that of heaven."

Ripster8 wrote:Only in TEAW have I seen that level of casualties. Like you said, it seems very historically unrealistic. Lee lost over 60% of his entire army in two days, 50,000 men slaughtered! The Army of Northern Virginia had excellent morale but I believe that even they would have broken and routed away long before 60% of them were dead. It would have been perhaps more palatable if they had lost 10-15% in battle and then lost another 10-15% in the pusuit after the battle but the 60% level of casualties puts the Battle of the Somme to shame!

hey i have seen 100% of armys destroyed at fight! The game engine will feed more and more troops in what will fit in the batlefield if the troops morale are ok and if they are fit and eagar! and i think in that case both troops morale where good and the composure where optimal. Hey shit happens

Hello again folks! Sorry for the delay, we had an order mix-up which also set me back from doing this AAR. But now we are square again so this post I will try to just outline the current situation and we will begin again from here.

[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]

Here you can see the current situation in Virginia. The massive battle you saw turned out not to be too bad for us, although we did lose 2 full divisions we were able to promote Hooker, Burnside and....the other generals name is escaping me at the moment. All told I do believe that exlaime got the worst of that battle even though we took far more casualties, we could afford it.

From this picture you can see we are fully across the Rappahannock and one region away from Richmond. Lee has fallen back to Richmond this turn from just north of it so we will be taking 2 corps from Fredericksburg and moving into that region, as well as having Burnside move down one region below them. This will effectively have Richmond hemmed in by 4 corps, although I'm not quite sure what he has sitting south of Richmond just now.

In the far left-hand corner you can see our cavalry division. They will blow the Richmond east-west rails and make his way back to Charlottesville to protect the depot there. Basically we have accomplished our goals for this theater in this campaign season by engaging Lee pretty decisively while also getting across the river defense that the south can set up. Our next goal here will be to form at least 2 more corps, and see if we can't begin to encircle Richmond.

Little Mac and Hallack are both still in Phili training away on three new divisions and we will be recruiting more here in the coming months. We are also ordering 10 Rodman artillery pieces for the Richmond showdown if it comes to one.

[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]

This turn was a great success for our Tenn forces under Grant.

As you can see we were able to capture Memphis with Grant since Jackson went south, although our rail line north is being cut at the moment. We are in the process of recruiting a new cavalry division to help shore this problem up. In the Memphis capture both Lyon's and Thomas were promoted! Woohoo! Finally some real talented corps commander's out here. We will need them in the coming year.

Further east you can see our forces protecting the line up to Nashville. They are in a pretty good defensive position and all on rail lines leading north. This will be an excellent point to strike further south once spring comes around.

We have a small division dug in around Nashville and our cavalry division sitting in Bowling Green to thwart Forrest entering our rear.

[color="#FF0000"]Louisiana [/color]

Our offensive here saw some early success, until Jackson came calling. We were basically forced back south one region above New Orleans on the defensive. I doubt he will try anything here but hope to keep us bottles up. Our new approach will probably be to push south from Memphis next year if we can and maybe force him to withdraw back towards Vicksburg/Jackson. I highly doubt we will send anymore forces here because it would take a mammoth effort to kick Jackson out of his position. We will resort to maneuvering south behind him.

[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]

We managed to cut the supply to El Paso and with two divisions he decided to break out and head back into Texas. This was a big win for us, because he devoted two pretty good divisions to this area and we managed to take it without a major pitched battle. Chalk one up for tactical wins!

Overall I would say our 1862 campaign season was a huge success. We managed to complete most of our major objectives, except for in Louisiana. Even still, that forced him to send one of his best field forces to bottle us up, so that is a win in itself!

We managed to take Memphis/Nashville in Tenn and will shore up taking MC of the rest of West Tenn this winter with smaller forces if we can. This will also free up a division on guard duty in Cairo to head to Memphis and dig in, as we can now own the river with our fleet and some well placed artillery along the banks of the Mississippi.

In Virginia we saw a crazy battle that ended up in our favor even though we sustained heavy casualties. We have crossed the river and are now in control of most of Northern Virginia while also threatening Richmond itself.

The blockade % is setting at a healthy 75% and has been for a while. All in all I am happy with our Anaconda progress thus far. Bad weather is starting to set in, so both sides will probably sit back and prepare for next spring.

As for our spring goals, I think its pretty obvious we would like to take Richmond, but I am happy trying to surround it as well as that could be an interesting twist on things. We also look to push on Chattanooga as well as push south from Memphis to help free up our army in New Orleans. I think in the Far West we have gone as far as we need and will sit defensively in El Paso.

So that has gotten us pretty caught up so far and I look forward to bringing you more updates as the war progresses!

Thanks for the update, amigo! Can't see how the Confederacy will make it through the next year at this rate. Richmond appears doomed, Grant is raging in the West and you were so successful in NO that your opponent sent a crack corps to stop your advance. Once again, you effectively harnessed the Union's productive advantage to create the army you wanted to execute the strategy that would lead to victory. Very impressive, General!

"The Hanged Man is a representative of humanity who is found between two kingdoms - that of this world and that of heaven."

Sorry for the delay folks. Elxaime and I both went out of town on separate occasions and the game was put on hold for a minute. But we are back now and I am eager to get going again. I suppose I will just do another quick "how things stand" at the moment type post while I wait for the next turn to come in.

[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]

As you can see in Virginia we are progressing extremely well. Elxaime was caught organizing his forces I think and I was able to basically surround Richmond. I know Richmond creates a ton of supply, but is it enough to keep a 9k power stack fully stocked? I think I want to see if I can starve him out without having to do an actual assault. If I had to guess, Richmond has around 3k or so supply already stocked, so it could be a long siege . I'll see how long my patience holds before I order an attack here.

We are still creating ever more forces in New England. The sheer amount of troops the North can create can be an organizational nightmare at this point in the game. Compounded by the fact I haven't been able to play for a bit I have to admit I am having trouble getting back in the swing of things. I am taking this turn to simply issue all the new year orders for money and conscripts and will do another large recruitment next round when I can be a bit more on top of things.

[color="#FF0000"]Tennessee[/color]

As you saw we were able to take Memphis a few turns back...now we are just camping out in our winter quarters in Corinth and trying to make sure to protect our rails. I have 2 cavalry divisions heading this way to do just that in the near future.

Further east we are just sitting tight waiting out the winter, wondering where his forces here are. He had a large stack under J Johnston roaming around but I haven't seen them in quite some time. If I had to guess they are hiding in the hills around Chattanooga somewhere.

[color="#FF0000"]Louisiana[/color]

Down here Jackson disappeared and I have no idea where he went either. We are slowly moving one region at a time on the rail line to avoid running smack dab into him entrenched a few regions away. I don't have any cav here which was a mistake, so I have no info on whats ahead of me. Dangerous. We will continue to press forward slowly and hope to reach Jackson Mississippi by the time the weather turns or we run into Stonewall again.

Overall the war is going pretty well for the north. As this is only Elxaime third time ever playing the South he is struggling a bit I think with where to deploy his stretched out forces. I intend to make that even harder for him when I send two divisions toward Savannah or Charleston in the next few months. Another interesting thing I noticed was the VP disparity already. I could just sit tight were I am at this moment without taking another city and win by VP's at the end. I have taken Missouri, Far East, New Orleans, Northern Virginia and most of Tenn. Just by doing that I have a 20 points VP per turn lead which will lead to a VP minor victory in Jan 66'. Hmmm doesn't seem right to me.

I am looking forward to getting this back up and running and hope to end the war before 1864!

Greetings all. I just sent the South's concession to Orphan_Kentuckian, so I wanted to pop in and see the thread and offer closing thoughts.

First, many thanks to Orphan_Kentuckian for the game. He had the patience to let me have a go at him as CSA three times, even though he was whipping me pretty handily. I learned a lot and am glad I managed to get into 1863 this time. Nice tips in the thread too - I never knew that a head of a stack, if they commanded a division, may not still be the commander, even though ranking.

Not sure I have solved the puzzle of the CSA. In this game, I had the sense Orphan could have ended things even earlier, but was keeping one hand tied behind his back. All that said, my experience has taught me:

1. The South ABSOLUTELY must prioritize and have a plan as to what he will or will not give up and when; do not waste a single combat unit sitting somewhere for no reason
2. Be more aggressive, but also subject to reasonable calculation of chances; I whittled away too much strength early on in low-odds attacks

Things ended in our game with the Union Army of the Potomac basically starving out the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond. There was a breakout attempt when Jackson brought his army to launch a "Steiner Offensive" but the Union Army was just too big by then.

Making it to '63 against an experienced Union player is not easy. Playing the losing side in a fairly historical game - you can't really expect to win, that path leads to cursing and frustration. So managing to keep the fight up for 40 turns with half the men and material of the opposition is a job well done.

Going to the school of hard knocks is tough, but worth it. I had the privilege of putting Straight Arrow through that class. He asked me not to hold back, I didn't, and now I'd consider him the resident expert on damage control. Most of the strategic questions that come up when playing against the AI are of the 'how do I win more efficiently' type, in the school of hard knocks the questions are more like 'the levee is about to break, how do I not drown in 2 turns?' The answer is probably in the Points to Know thread.

I agree with your first point. Its a very tough situation to be in, one were you have to let things go, clinging to the dream of not losing anything will only burn you in the end. So, it is good to know where your resources are coming from, which cities produce the most and therefore should be held above others.

One of the better examples I can think of is deciding how to distribute your forces in Tennessee, something along this line:Should I keep a full corps in Nashville, or should I send half the men into the mountains of Chattanooga and the other half to strengthen the defense of Memphis? My choice would be to abandon Nashville, perhaps sending the half corps to Covington, TN, to support Memphis. The reasons: Nashville makes $1 and 2 conscripts. The plantations in Covington, one region north of Memphis, makes $4 to Nashville's $1. Memphis enlists 10% of the entire Confederate conscripts.

elxaime wrote:I never knew that a head of a stack, if they commanded a division, may not still be the commander, even though ranking.

Gray Fox got that a bit backwards. The highest ranking general in the stack will be the stack commander. If the highest ranking general is also directly leading a unit, whether it be a division or an attached brigade, the general will effectively abandon command of his unit to assume command of the entire force/stack. Any troops that are directly lead by the stack commander will not benefit from unit leadership bonuses. They will still gain stack leadership bonuses.

Ah, thanks for the further explanation of what Gray Fox said. In any case, a bad result and a good thing to know to avoid next time.

On holding at Memphis, doesn't that open you up to getting pinned and trapped against the Mississippi? The problem seems to me that unless you can hold Fort Donelson, the Union has a river highway all the way down to Corinth. Grant takes the fleet down, takes Corinth, and then your force at Memphis is flanked. The whole ball of wax seems to always come down to that accursed (in Confederate eyes anyway) river highway south. Fort Donelson seems the key to both Nashville and Memphis.

Yes, if you give up Donelson and Nashville then Corinth becomes the likely next target. However, if your defense is centered around Memphis, you could have a corps in both Memphis and Corinth, with an army between them in Hardeman, supporting both regions.

I feel that setup works pretty good, I've broke that line as the Union, but it costed me dearly. I felt my only option was to attack Corinth; Hitting Memphis would require a naval landing or crossing the river from Covington, I'd also have to dog pile all my forces in Covington to support the attack. Hitting the center of the line in Hardeman is foolish, once again the Union would have to attack from Covington to avoid the river crossing. So then, Corinth becomes the likely target. Thankfully, Corinth is a forest region, where your infantry will fight 15% better than Union's. The max range of 4 in a forest will also help your men against a massive Union artillery barrage that would otherwise happen in clearer terrain.

Cardinal Ape wrote:Yes, if you give up Donelson and Nashville then Corinth becomes the likely next target. However, if your defense is centered around Memphis, you could have a corps in both Memphis and Corinth, with an army between them in Hardeman, supporting both regions.

I feel that setup works pretty good, I've broke that line as the Union, but it costed me dearly. I felt my only option was to attack Corinth; Hitting Memphis would require a naval landing or crossing the river from Covington, I'd also have to dog pile all my forces in Covington to support the attack. Hitting the center of the line in Hardeman is foolish, once again the Union would have to attack from Covington to avoid the river crossing. So then, Corinth becomes the likely target. Thankfully, Corinth is a forest region, where your infantry will fight 15% better than Union's. The max range of 4 in a forest will also help your men against a massive Union artillery barrage that would otherwise happen in clearer terrain.

As a side note; In my older PBEM vs. Charles that he posted on YouTube, I had him on the ropes early on and his NM was hovering around the 70's. Then he got these events PLUS the rare Trent event where it increased the Foreign Entry but gave him 10 NM! He received around 17 NM for literally doing nothing which in my opinion saved his bacon. I was sitting in the 130's! He shot back up to 90 something in just a few turns. It was a bit frustrating to say the least. I know that event is pretty rare, but there is a chance. Plus I have NEVER seen Foreign Entry get to 100. I know it can happen, I've just never seen it. I thought I had him when our NM difference was so big just because my attacks would have been more successful with the max cohesion bonus. Bah. I'm still kinda salty about it, but only because its on YouTube forever. lol. Okay Confederate fan biased rant off.

This cracked me up when I read this. Nice to see I made an appearance.